Otir 

Church 

Literature. 


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OUR  CHURCH  LITERATURE 


A  PAPER 


Read  at  the  Fifth  Synod  of  the  Second  District 

of  THE 

MORAVIAN  CHURCH, 

CONVENED  AT 

YORK,  PENN’A, 


May  7th  to  9th,  1901,. 


BY 


The  Rev.  CHARLES  NAGEL. 


YORK,  PA., 

Gazette  Print, 

1901. 


N  Thursday,  May  9th,  1901, 
Pa.,  it  was  unanimously 


Synod  being  in  session  at  York, 


Resolved ,  That  the  Secretary  of  Synod  be  instructed  to  have 
2,000  copies  of  the  paper,  “Our  Church  Literature,”  by  Bro. 
Charles  Nagel,  printed  in  pamphlet  form,  the  expense  of  print¬ 
ing  and  mailing  the  same  to  be  borne  by  the  Synodal  Expense 
Fund;  and  that  he  furthermore  be  instructed  to  mail  copies  of 
the  same  to  the  pastors  of  all  our  congregations  in  proportion  to 
the  number  of  families  in  each  congregation. 

Attest:  Leon  G.  Luckenbach, 

Secretary  of  Synod. 


1 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2020  with  funding  from 
Columbia  University  Libraries 


https://archive.org/details/ourchurchliteratOOnage 

h 


“  OUR  GHURGM  LITERATURE.” 


I  shall  confine  myself  in  this  paper  wholly  to  that 
portion  of  our  Church  Literature  of  which  the  most 
part  was  published  in  America  and  has  its  circulation 
here.  Much  of  it  lies  almost  forgotten  on  the  shelves 
of  our  archives  and  historical  societies  and  is  known 
only  to  its  official  cnstodians  or  to  a  few  others  to  whom 
the  love  of  research  in  Ihistorical  lore  has  opened  the 
door  of  access  to  these  venerable  and  valuable  records. 
Prized  as  they  are  by  men  who  are  judges  of  such 
things,  they  do  not,  obviously,  appeal  to  the  general 
reader.  Registers  of  membership,  special  religious 
experiences  of  certain  individuals,  controversial  de¬ 
tail,  diaries  of  the  earlier  congregations  dating  back 
to  the  colonial  period,  form  dreary  reading  to  any  ex¬ 
cept  the  historian.  But  from  this  vast  collection  of 
reading  matter,  much  of  which  is  in  manuscript  form 
and  not  easily  legible,  besides  written  largely  in  the 
German  language,  there  has  been  carefully  culled  and 
collated  whatever  was  thought  to  be  essential  to  an 
exact  and  broad  knowledge  of  the  Church’s  history  in 
all  that  pertains  to  its  doctrine  and  institutions,  its 
men  and  its  times.  Thus,  while  the  past,  in  the 
literary  forms  in  which  it  once  found  expression,  is 
rapidly  receding  from  our  view,  we  have  in  our  work¬ 
ing  libraries  today  that  which  is  still  more  valuable, 
because  more  practical  and  convenient,  viz:  a  well- 
balanced  compendium  of  all  that  the  fathers  wrote  so 


6 


extensively.  In  this  respect  we  have  not  been  made 
to  suffer  any  loss. 

The  extent  of  literary  activity  which  prevailed  in 
the  North  American  branch  of  the  Moravian  Church 
in  the  last  century  and  a  half,  is  astonishing.  We 
wonder  that  those  busy  men  found  time  to  write  so 
much.  What  faithful  diarists  they  were  !  Very  little 
escaped  the  attention  of  their  recording  pen.  That 
which  in  their  communications  we  skip  over  lightly 
as  irrelevant  was  accorded  the  same  painstaking  care 
as  anything  from  their  pens  which  is  held  in  supreme 
regard  today.  Histories  biogrophical,  congregational 
and  missionary,  proceedings  of  Synods  and  Confer¬ 
ences,  sermons,  hymns  and  hymn  books,  catechisms, 
vocabularies  and  grammars  of  foreign  tongues,  tracts, 
official  and  personal  publications  followed  each  other 
in  rapid  succession  from  the  beginning  of  the  Church 
in  the  North  American  colonies  in  1740  up  to  that 
latest  and  most  excellent  contribution  to  our  liter¬ 
ature  by  Prof.  J.  Taylor  Hamilton,  in  his  “History  of 
the  Moravian  Church,”  1900,  and  his  “Moravian  Mis¬ 
sions,”  1901.  What  a  wealth  of  information  all  these 
productions  contain  !  How  creative  of  loyalty  to  and 
understanding  of  the  salient  features  of  the  church  in 
its  teaching  and  work  they  are  1  How  they  help  us  to 
catch  the  spirit  of  the  Brethren  and  inspire  us  to  fol¬ 
low  in  their  footsteps !  What  dignity,  what  force 
these  simple  annals  of  the  past  reflect  upon  our  cher¬ 
ished  Unity  in  nearly  every  phase  of  its  being  and 
action,  and  how  helpful  they  are  in  answering  the 
questions:  “who  are  the  Moravians,  and  what  are 
they,  and  why  am  I  a  Moravian?”  And  of  this  I  am 
certain  that  there  is  no  one  who  has  ever  given  thought- 


7 


ful  perusal  to  our  literature,  whether  in  whole  or  in 
part,  throbbing  as  it  is  with  the  energy  of  the  Divine 
Spirit,  who  has  not  been  influenced,  by  means  of  that 
perusal,  to  a  better  knowledge  of  and  more  loving  and 
enthusiastic  fellowship  with  his  Lord,  to  a  clearer  per¬ 
ception  of  the  Saviour’s  last  command  and  promise  : 
“Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  Gospel,  and 
lo,  I  am  with  you  alway  even  unto  the  end  of  the 
world,”  and  to  a  warmer  love  of  the  brethren  ! 

But  what  is  our  church  literature?  I  trust  I  shall 
not  weary  you  by  the  enumeration  of  most  of  the 
works,  and  the  authors  of  them,  which  together  form 
the  great  bulk  of  church  history,  remote  and  near,  in 
our  possession  today.  Let  us  go  back  to  what  we  may 
call  the  “Zinzendorfian  Period,”  dating  from  colonial 
times  to  about  the  time  of  the  French  and  Indian 
War.  During  that  period  the  literary  activity  of 
the  church  was  at  its  zenith.  After  that  there  is 
very  little  worthy  of  record  until  we  come  to  our 
more  modern  publications  in  about  1823.  The  very 
first  American  publication  was  a  collection  of  hymns 
by  Zinzendorf,  entitled  ‘  ‘  Hirten  Lieder  von  Bethle¬ 
hem,”  and  printed  by  Lauer  of  Germantown,  in  1742. 
A  second  edition  of  the  same  appeared  in  London,  in 
1754.  The  Count  compiled  this  hymn  book  during 
his  stay  in  America.  In  it  occurs  that  allusion  to 
Bethlehem,  Palestine,  as  the  spot  whence  salvation 
came  to  men,  in  the  lines  made  very  famous,  by  the 
way,  through  special  mention  during  the  recent  Ses- 
qui-centennial  celebration  of  the  founding  of  Bethle¬ 
hem  on  the  banks  of  the  Lehigh. 

“Nicht  aus  Jerusalem,  sondern  Bethlehem, 

Aus  dem  kommt  was  mir  frommet.” 


8 


Thus  it  was  that  our  Bethlehem  received  its  name. 
Probably  the  most  interesting  to  Moravians  and  his¬ 
torians  in  general  is  a  Catechism,  compiled  by  John 
Bechtel,  of  Germantown,  a  licensed  preacher  among 
the  Reformed  in  Pennsylvania,  for  use  in  the  church. 
The  full  set  of  four  well  bound  little  volumes  is  iu  the 
Library  of  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania.  The 
order  in  which  they  occur  is,  first,  “Ein  Kurzer  Cate¬ 
chisms,”  published  in  1742,  by  Benjamin  Franklin, 
who  was  on  excellent  terms  with  the  Brethren  and 
published  many  of  their  writings.  The  second  is  the 
translation  into  English  of  the  former,  published  by 
Josiah  Warner,  of  Philadelphia,  in  1742.  The  third 
is  a  Swedish  Edition  of  the  same  and  intended  for  use 
among  the  Swedish  Lutherans  in  Pennsylvania,  en¬ 
titled  “En  Kort  Catechismus1”  printed  by  Benjamin 
Franklin,  in  1743,  and  the  fourth,  ‘‘Ein  Kurzer  Cate¬ 
chismus,”  which  was  printed  in  Germany,  in  1742, 
but  of  which  the  title  page  bears  Franklin’s  imprint. 

To  that  same  period,  the  Zinzendorfian,  belong  the 
Journals  of  the  undenominational  Pennsylvania  Synods, 
in  seven  parts,  also  printed  by  Franklin  in  1742.  Dur¬ 
ing  the  same  year  were  published  eighteen  books  and 
pamphlets  for  and  against  the  Moravian  Brethren, 
printed  for  their  authors  by  that  trio  of  typographers, 
Franklin,  Bradford  and  Saur,  and  ten  other  books  and 
pamphlets,  also  of  a  polemical  character,  in  1743 
These  publications  arose  out  of  that  disturbed  period 
from  1740-1743,  when,  in  our  own  state,  Zinzen- 
dorf,  amid  vigorous  and  perilous  opposition,  sought 
to  bring  about  some  kind  of  ^ecclesiastical  union  be¬ 
tween  the  shepherdless  churches  of  the  Lutheran  and 
Reformed  denominations  and  the  many  sectarians  who 


9 


rail  into  every  extreme  of  pseudo-religious  license. 
Many  of  us  hope  that  the  work  upon  which  Bro.  F. 

F.  Hagen  is  engaged,  the  translation  of  Count  Zin- 
zendorf’s  sermons,  some  twenty-seven  of  them,  many 
of  which  were  delivered  during  this  period  of  storm 
and  stress,  may  find  its  successful  completion  in  a 
sufficient  number  of  subscriptions.  These  sermons 
will  form  most  interesting  reading  from  a  doctrinal 
and  historic  standpoint. 

Another  favorite  printer  in  those  early  days  was 
Henry  Miller.  He  was  a  noted  publisher  of  Moravian 
literature.  For  example,  he  printed  two  thousand 
German  spelling  books  for  the  incipient  church  in 
America. 

The  following  is  a  partial  list  of  British  and  Ameri¬ 
can  works  and  rescripts  current  here  after  the  revolu-  . 
tionary  period  of  1776.  We  need  a  literary  revival 
on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  to  rescue  from  inevitable 
oblivion  some,  if  not  all  the  books  about  to  be  men¬ 
tioned.  They  are  standard  works,  every  one,. of  them. 
Crantz’s  “History  of  the  Moravian  Church,”  a  conspic¬ 
uous  authority,  London,  1780.  La  Trobe’s  translation 
of  Bishop  G.  H.  Loskiel’s  “History  of  Moravian  Mis¬ 
sions”  among  the  Indians  of  North  America,  London, 
1794.  La  Trobe’s  translation  of  Spangenberg’s  “Life 
of  Zinzendorf.”  Spangenberg’s  “Idea  Fidei  Fra- 
trum,”  1796.  Crantz’s  “History  of  Greenland,”  2vols. 
1820.  John  Holmes’  “History  of  the  United  Brethren’s 
Church,”  2  vols. ,  1825  and  his  “History  of  Missions,” 

1  vol.,  same  year.  Then,  there  are  the  helpful  “Peri¬ 
odical  Accounts,”  quarterly,  from  1790-1901.  The 
“Budingsche  Sammlung,”  3  vols.,  containing  very 
valuable  data  relating  to  the  early  church.  Bovets’ 


IO 


“The  Banished  Count”  (Zinzendorf,)  1865.  Lock- 
wood’s  “Life  of  Boehler,”  London,  1868.  “Moravian 
Missions,”  by  A.  C.  Thompson,  D.  D.  Every  minis¬ 
ter  of  our  American  Church  and  every  Sunday  School 
library  ought  to  possess  this  volume.  Had  Thompson 
been  a  Moravian  he  could  not  have  entered  more  fully 
and  devoutly  into  the  history  of  whatever  pertained  to 
the  men  and  missions  of  the  church.  That  there  is  a 
great  volume  of  literature,  describing  very  circum¬ 
stantially,  some  phases  of  the  church’s  inner  life  and 
many  of  its  customs  in  the  past,  such  as  the  pedela- 
viurn,  the  use  of  the  lot,  etc.,  or  some  of  its  customs 
in  the  present,  as  the  celebration  of  Easter  at  Bethle¬ 
hem,  which,  in  the  interest  of  exact  truth,  had  better 
been  left  unwritten,  goes  without  saying.  Some 
novels,  based  upon  entirely  fictitious  events  or  else 
upon  half  ascertained  facts  of  our  history,  have  ap¬ 
peared,  which  in  point  of  literary  or  historic  value,  are 
not  worth  the  paper  on  which  they  were  printed.  The 
unique  character  of  some  of  our  customs,  many  of 
which  are  now  obsolete,  furnished  enticing  literary 
material  to  certain  minds  of  morbid  tendency,  and  if 
the  great  Longfellow,  in  his  “Hymn  of  the  Moravian 
Nuns  at  Bethlehem  at  the  consecration  of  Pulaski’s 
Banner”  did  not  escape  the  contagion,  can  we  wonder 
that  intellects  of  coarser  fibre  should  be  found  floating 
like  moths  about  our  mystic  flame  and  that  all  man¬ 
ner  of  strange  and  impossible  things  are  being  written 
about  us,  and  can  the  writers  of  these  things  wonder 
why,  afterward,  when  their  fantasies  have  appeared  in 
print,  the  Moravian  public  should  recompense  them 
for  this  supreme  effort  of  their  brains  with  a  pityihg 
smile? 


II 


Let  us  now  take  up  that  portion  of  our  Church  Lit¬ 
erature  which  covers  the  period  of  our  operations 
among  the  Indians  of  North  America.  Zinzendorf 
began  his  Gospel  campaign  among  them  in  1742.  It 
flourished  beyond  all  expectation.  The  literary  prod¬ 
ucts  of  that  interesting  period  were  many.  The  first 
mention  we  make  is  B.  A.  Grube’s  “Delaware  Indian 
Hymn  book,”  printed  at  Friedensthal,  in  1762.  The 
little  volume  is  in  the  library  of  the  Historical  Society 
of  Pennsylvania.  In  addition  to  this  we  have  his 
“Harmony  of  the  Gospels,”  also  in  the  Delawarean 
tongue  and  published  at  the  same  place  and  time  as 
his  hymn  book.  Both  were  used  in  the  Indian  mis¬ 
sions  of  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio  until  a  quarter  of  a 
century  later  when  Zeizberger’s  new  translations  of 
the  same  books  superseded  Grube’s.  The  title  of  an¬ 
other  work  belonging. to  those  times  is  “An  Essay  of 
a  Delaware  Indian — English  Spelling  Book  for  the 
use  of  Christian  Indians  on  the  Muskingum  River.” 
This  pamphlet  was  published  in  Philadelphia  in  1776, 
followed  by  a  second  edition  in  1806.  A  “Collection 
of  Hymns  for  the  use  of  Christian  Indians,”  translated 
by  Abraham  Luckenbach,  missionary  among  them, 
Philadelphia,  1803  and  1847.  A  “  History  of  our 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,”  translated  by  Zeisber- 
ger,  New  York,  1821.  “Essay  on  the  Onondaga 
Grammar,”  by  Zeisberger,  and  edited  by  J.  W.  Jordan, 
Philadelphia.  A  “Lenape — English  Dictionary,”  pub¬ 
lished  by  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania,  1888. 
The  world  of  letters  owes  an  immense  debt  of  gratitude 
to  these  early  linguists  and  authors  of  the  Moravian 
Church. 

For  the  evolution  of  our  Hymnology  and  Liturgies 


12 


I  would  refer  you  to  the  very  instructive  Preface  in 
the  Hymn  Book  now  in  use. 

An  interesting  item  of  information  lies  in  the  fact 
that  the  first  American  Text  Book  was  printed  in 
German  by  John  Brandmiller,  in  Friedensthal,  near 
Nazareth,  in  1767.  The  Text  Book  has  been  in  con¬ 
secutive  use  since  1731.  Its  circulation  has  spread  far 
beyond  the  roll  of  the  Church.  It  is  said  that  Prince 
Bismark  read  it  daily.  I  was  astonished  to  meet  it  at 
the  breakfast  table  of  a  relative  of  mine,  a  Uutheran 
clergyman,  in  Stuttgart.  Special  efforts  should  be 
made  to  give  this  helpful  mentor  of  the  Spirit  to,  at 
least,  every  Moravian  household.  It  would  seem, 
sometimes,  as  if  others  prized  distinctly  Moravian 
privileges  and  helps  more  highly  than  we  do  ourselves. 
Passing  by  this  subject,  however,  it  is  gratifying  to 
see  how  literary  lamps  in  the  hands  of  others  among 
God’s  people  are  being  lighted  at  our  torch  and  made 
to  diffuse  knowledge  concerning  His  kingdom  in  direc¬ 
tions  which  we  could  never  reach.  Thus  the  Presby¬ 
terian  Sunday  School  Union  has  issued  from  its  press 
quite  a  list  of  books  bearing  on  Moravian  history,  and 
intended  for  youthful  readers.  I  cannot  give  the 
authors,  but  the  following  are  the  titles  of  some  of 
these  publications:  A  “History  of  Moravian  Mis¬ 
sions  among  the  North  American  Indians,”  “Tschoop, 
the  Converted  Indian,”  “Anecdotes  of  Missionary 
Worthies  of  the  Moravian  Church,”  “Sketches  of 
Moravian  Missions.” 

To  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Publications  we  are 
indebted  for  “The  Moravian  Indian  Boy.”  Some 
time  ago  I  came  across  a  brochure  on  Moravian  Mis¬ 
sion  History  brought  out  by  the  Baptist  Board  of  Pub- 


13 


lication.  In  excellent  language  and  illustrations  it 
dwelt  on  some  •  of  the  most  prominent  facts  of  our 
Mission  work.  Pulpits  of  all  denominations  exalt  the 
Moravian  standard  of  evangelization.  It  seems  to  me 
that  the  world  is  waiting,  especially  the  child  world 
in  our  families  and  Sunday  Schools,  for  just  such  pub¬ 
lications  as  the  kind  alluded  to  above.  We  possess  an 
unfathomable  mine  of  facts,  entertaining  and  edifying, 
in  the  lives  and  labors  of  our  founders  and  missionar¬ 
ies  which  ought  to  be  brought  to  the  light  of  day,  not 
in  the  “Little  Missionary”  or  the  “Periodical  Ac¬ 
counts”  alone,  but  in  pamphlet  form,  as  for  example 
the  late  “Tannenreisser,  ”  or  in  book  form,  but  put  on 
the  market  at  a  reasonable  cost.  If  the  Church,  by 
means  of  a  comprehensive  and  popular  literature  were 
to  become  the  world’s  teacher  with  regard  to  things 
Moravian,  the  question  “who  are  the  Moravians?” 
would  be  less  frequently  put  and  would  have  to  be  less 
humiliatingly  answered. 

Another  form  of  our  Church  Literature,  much  of 
wThich  bears  an  ancient  date,  is  that  of  our  Magazines. 
We  have  to  report  the  “United  Brethren’s  Missionary 
Intelligencer,  a  quarterly  publication,  from  1822- 
1848.  This  was  succeeded  by  another  quarterly,  the 
“Moravian  Church  Miscellany,”  from  1850-1855. 
The  “Brueder  Blatt,”  a  monthly,  from  1854-1861. 
The  “Moravian”  and  the  “Brueder  Botschafter.” 
This  Synod,  I  am  sure,  endorses  the  management  of 
the  latter  and  cordially  unites  in  bidding  God-speed 
to  the  newly  appointed  editor  of  the  former. 

And  now  I  come  to  publications  of  more  recent  date. 
First  of  all  let  me  refer  to  the  works  of  John  Hecke- 
welder,  our  apostle,  with  David  Zeisberger,  to  the 


14 


Indians.  From  his  prolific  pen  we  have  the  following: 
A  “Narrative  of  the  Mission  of  the  United  Brethren 
among  the  Delawares  and  Mohicans,”  Philadelphia, 
1820.  The  “History,  Manners  and  Customs  of  the 
Indian  Nations.”  This  was  brought  out  by  the  Phil¬ 
osophical  Society  of  Philadelphia,  in  1819,  and  dedi¬ 
cated  to  its  President,  Caspar  Wistar.  A  second 
edition  was  published  by  the  Historical  Society  of 
Pennsylvania  in  1871,  by  W.  C.  Reichel.  This  last 
book  brought  the  Indian  Mission  before  the  people 
more  favorably  than  any  other  two  books  of  the  same 
nature,  and  did  a  great  deal  of  good.  “Names  which 
the  Lenni — Uenapeor  Delaware  Indians  gave  to  rivers, 
streams,  etc.,  in  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  Maryland, 
and  Virginia,”  edited  by  W.  C.  Reichel,  in  1872. 

The  late  W.  C.  Reichel  is,  par  excellence,  the  his¬ 
torian  of  our  day.  His  language  is  fluent  and  style 
classic.  He  gave  to  our  literature  some  of  its  most 
distinguished  contributions.  I  will  give  his  w7orks  in 
their  chronological  order,  and  all  of  them.  “History 
of  Nazareth  Hall,  ”  1855,  1869.  “History  of  the  Rise 
and  Progress  of  the  Bethlehem  Female  Seminary,” 
1858.  “Moravians  in  New  York  and  Connecticut,” 
i860.  “Memorials  of  the  Moravian  Church,”  1870. 

‘  ‘  Wyalusing  and  Moravian  Mission  at  Friedenshutten,  ” 
1871.  “A  Red  Rose  from  the  Old  Time,”  &c.,  1872. 
“The  Crowm  Inn,”  1872.  “The  Old  Sun  Inn,”  1873. 
“A  Register  of  Members  of  the  Moravian  Church  from 
1727-1754,  in  1873.  “Friedensthal  and  its  stockaded 
Mill,”  1873. 

The  literary  productions  of  the  late  Bishop  Kdmund 
de  Schweinitz,  S.  T.  D.,  an  eminent  authority  on 
things  Moravian  and  a  distinguished  author,  are,  in  the 


i5 


main,  the  following:  The  “Moravian  Manual,”  two 
editions,  1859  and  1869.  “History  of  the  Unitas  Frat- 
rum,”  1885.  The  “Moravian  Episcopate,”  1885. 
“Life  and  Times  of  David  Zeisberger,”  1870.  “Finan¬ 
cial  History  of  the  American  Province,”  1887.  The 
“Fathers  of  the  American  Moravian  Church.” 

The  following  are  some  of  the  many  contributions 
to  our  literature  from  the  pen  of  Prof.  A.  Shultze,  D. 
D.  “Seliger  Heimgang  von  Siebenzig  Kindern  Gottes 
aus  der  Brueder  Kirche,”  1876.  “David  Zeisberger, 
der  Apostel  der  Indianer,”  1878.  The  First  Moravian 
“Text  Book”  Aarlig  Dagbog,”  1888.  “Die  Missions- 
felder  der  Erneuerten  Brueder  Kirche,”  1890.  The 
“Books  of  the  Bible  briefly  analyzed,”  1889,  fifth  edi¬ 
tion.  “Grammar  and  Vocabulary  of  the  Eskimo 
Language  of  North  Western  Alaska,”  1891.  The 
“History  of  the  Apostles  Peter  and  Paul  in  their  own 
Words,”  1896.  “A  Chronological  Table  of  Ancient 
and  Modern  History,”  besides  a  number  of  Liturgies 
for  our  German  Hymn  books,  Catechisms  and  Tracts 
setting  forth  the  doctrine  of  the  church. 

The  works  of  Prof.  J.  Taylor  Hamilton.  The  “His¬ 
tory  of  the  Moravian  Church,”  1900.  The  “History 
of  Moravian  Missions,”  1901. 

James  Henry,  formally  years  President  of  the  Mora¬ 
vian  Historical  Society,  contributed  many  sketches  of 
early  history,  of  which  the  most  conspicuous  is  his 
“Moravian  Life  and  Character,”  1859.  Then,  we 
have  “Old  Landmarks,”  by  F.  F.  Hagen,  1886.  The 
“History  of  the  Moravian  Church  in  Philadelphia,” 
by  Abraham  Ritter,  1857.  The  “Publications  of  the 
Moravian  Historical  Society,  5  vols,  1859-1901,  and 
the  “Proceedings  of  the  S.  P.  G.,”  up  to  date.  “Ma- 


i5 


lin’s  Catalogue  of  Moravian  Books,”  1881.  ‘‘Life  of 
John  Heckewelder,”  by  his  relative,  the  late  Edward 
Rondthaler,  1847.  ‘‘Diary  of  David  Zeisberger,” 
from  1781-1798,  by  Bliss,  2  vols.,  1885.  ‘‘Views  of 
churches,  schools  and  other  buildings  erected  by  the 
United  Brethren  in  America,”  by  Bishop  Samuel 
Reinke,  1836.  Sylvester  Wolle’s ‘‘Souvenir.” 

This  by  no  means  exhausts  the  wealth  of  literary 
matter  with  which  God  has  enriched  our  American 
Church.  From  the  very  imperfect  resume  just  given 
we  learn  that  the  literary  activity  of  the  Brethren  on 
this  of  the  Atlantic,  was  prodigious  and  that  at  no 
time  was  there  a  period  of  literary  decadence  to  any 
very  palpable  extent.  Some  chronicler  of  events  has 
always  stood  upon  the  tower  of  observation  and  put 
down  for  posterity  all  that  he  saw.  We  may  say,, 
however,  that  since  1848,  the  channels  for  popular  in¬ 
formation  on  almost  any  department  of  the  Unity’s 
work,  say  that  of  Foreign  Missions,  for  it  is  by  that 
that  the  great  outlying  world  knows  us  best,  have  not 
been  made  to  give  forth  the  volume  of  matter  which 
existing  conditions  in  that  field  and  the  desire  on  the 
part  of  our  people  and  others  to  know  more  about 
them,  would  seem  to  call  for.  With  a  growing  work 
on  our  hands,  with  the  old  generation  rapidly  passing 
away  and  another  coming  in  which  requires  to  be  in¬ 
structed  in  the  things  that  the  former  knew  so  well  and 
to  be  helped  to  love  and  to  further  the  cause  of  Mora- 
vianism  in  the  world,  the  cause  for  which  the  Fathers 
not  only  wrote  but  suffered  and  died,  it  seems  to  me 
that  some  adequate  provision  for  the  accomplishment 
of  that  object  should  now  be  made.  We,  the  older 
brethren  among  the  younger  now  growing  up  around 


17 


us,  know  much  and  have  much  to  tell  and  admire 
about  the  church  in  its  various  lines  of  work,  and  not 
only  we,  but  the  Christian  world  at  large  recognizes 
and  appreciates  the  wonders  of  heroic  endurance  of  the 
apostolic  men  whose  name  we  bear  and  the  equally 
wonderful  spread  of  the  grace  of  God  which  an  ever 
present  Head  and  Saviour  accorded  to  Moravian  in¬ 
strumentality.  Books  on  Moravian  Missions  are 
found  on  the  shelves  of  most  libraries  having  any  re¬ 
ligious  drift.  But  it  is  not  the  book,  with  all  its 
wealth  of  information,  that  primarily  must  be  depended 
upon  to  shed  light  and  kindle  love  for  our  doctrine, 
our  institutions  and  our  aim.  Books  of  church  history 
are  not  in  popular  esteem.  Nor  is  a  book  of  history 
contemporaneous.  It  is  limited  to  a  certain  period.. 
It  can  go  no  further.  It  has  nothing  to  say  of  what 
comes  afterward.  What  I  am  pleading  for  is  that  we 
shall  in  some  popular  and  practical  form ,  convey  to 
the  present  generation  such  knowledge  about  ourselves 
as  shall  be  new,  fresh  and  progressive  of  whatever  the 
Lord  is  enabling  us  to  do  for  Him  noiv.  That  there 
is  an  obstruction  here  from  a  commercial  standpoint 
we  know  full  well.  Literature  costs.  And  the  ex¬ 
pense  of  many  of  our  former  publications  was  not 
defrayed  by  the  church.  Would  it  not  be  a  step  for¬ 
ward  in  the  direction  for  which  this  paper  pleads  if 
we  were  to  give  gratuitous  circulation,  say,  to  one 
hundred  copies  of  some  specially  instructive  issue  of 
the  “Moravian,”  and  to  as  many  copies  of  the  pro¬ 
ceedings  of  the  last  session  of  the  S.  P.  G.,  among 
pastors  and  representative  men  and  women  of  our 
acquaintance  in  other  churches,  as  well  as  among 
the  many  who  still  cherish  the  best  of  feeling  to- 


1 8 


ward  us  through  their  former  connection  with  our 
boarding  and  parochial  schools?  Here  is  a  plan  for 
the  spread  of  a  concurrent  church  literature  which 
is  simple,  not  costly,  practical,  and  productive,  I  be¬ 
lieve,  of  just  such  results  as  we  all  desire  to  see 
achieved.  Surely  we  have  tidings  to  communicate  to 
the  world,  and  testimonies  to  the  power  of  the  grace 
of  God,  as  the  fathers  had.  We,  too,  have  our  heroes 
*  and  heroines  in  the  faith.  And  the  number  of  those 
wrho  are  waiting  to  receive  news  from  Moravian  fields 
of  enterprise  for  Christ  and  Humanity  today  is  even 
greater  than  it  was  one  hundred  years  ago.  The  call, 
therefore,  is  for  methods  which  shall  be  in  proportion 
to  our  ability,  supplemented  by  an  earnest  effort,  to 
perpetuate  to  the  use  of  our  children  and  to  their  chil¬ 
dren  and  to  the  world,  that  which  is  in  our  possession 
now  of  things  both  old  and  new,  lest  we  forget  the 
“rock  whence  we  were  hewn,”  and  lest  one  of  the 
pillars  of  our  temple,  a  vitalized  and  helpful  literature, 
crumble  away  and  entail  irreparable  loss  to  the  entire 
structure. 


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